Robert Simpson is armed with the latest Greenpeace score card on fishing practices and sounding the charge against local seafood sellers. He loves eating fish but not the contaminated one. The retired Hurley Medical Center radiology technician has sworn off eating most of those favorite foods so our grandkids might enjoy them, too.
Simpson hopes to start a local boycott against so-called “red-listed” fish — species threatened by overfishing, caught using methods destructive to the marine environment, or harvested through non sustainable fish farming practices. He said that as the fishing stocks crash around the world for decades it is high time to start protest against all this.
According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization three-quarters of the world’s fish are fully exploited, overexploited or depleted. Still, the issue of sustainable seafood — resources that are replenished — is a fairly new one, even among “green” companies. Greenpeace’s Beth Fitzgerald expressed that the biggest difference that’s taken place in six months is the number of companies removing red-list species from sale.
Wal-mart spokeswoman Caren S. Epstein said that Wal-Mart offers sustainable harvested seafood at affordable prices, it impacts not only the buying habits of the customers, but shape the industry as a whole. Today, Wal-Mart offers 22 MSC-certified products. The company is also asking suppliers of farm-raised products such as shrimp to obtain similar eco-friendly approval from the Aquaculture Certification Council.
Simpson said that farm-raised fish are extremely damaging to the environment. Fitgerald said Greenpeace’s goal is to make supermarkets responsible, rather than the consumer. He also added that they are striving for companies to make the commitment to sustainable seafood so when you go to a store you don’t have to worry about picking through their freezer to know which seafood is bad and which is good.
